Thank you for your continued patience and support. If you have any questions,
please contact the IT Service Desk at 202-879-4504 or e-mail
itservicedesk@aft.org.

EZ-Update Tool: Designed to Reduce Your Workload

Will it really help me?

Would you like more time in
your day? Wish you could eliminate the stress of reviewing membership rosters
line by line? Want to let technology work for you? Then EZ-Update is the tool
for you!

The EZ-Update program is designed to reduce workload surrounding
the membership reporting process by having the employer send
membership information directly to the AFT national office-- while
sending the dues check directly to your local. We process the
membership information, and then provide you with the necessary
exception reports. EZ-Update saves you time and increases the
accuracy of your data reporting. Best of all, it’s free.

New Built-in Reports in Membership Suite:

It has come to our attention that there is some confusion about being
able to report on Members excluding` Agency Fee. To assist you, we have
created two new reports identifying your Members excluding Agency Fee
(full, half and quarter). These reports are entitled Membership
Directory excluding Agency Fee and Preferred Address Labels excluding
Agency Fee. To access these reports, please do the following:

On the Membership Suite System Tree or System Bar, click Built-in
Reports.

These reports include your Members and exclude Agency Fee non-members. If you
have any further questions, please feel free to contact the SASDesk at
sasdesk@aft.org or call (800) 238-1133, extension. 4504.

How to Track Laid Off Members in Membership
Suite:

The AFT understands that it is a difficult time for us all. Therefore, we
want to make certain that any member that is laid-off can still receive their
AFT member benefits. According to the 2008 AFT Constitution, Article III Section
6c, "Laid-off employees or employees on unpaid leave: Such locals shall pay per
capita tax for such members at the rate of $1 per month". If your local has
individuals falling into the above category of "laid-off" or "unpaid leave,"
please follow the steps below.

Membership Suite:

In order for laid off members to continue to receive member benefits from the
national office, do the following:

Edit a record

Select Unpaid Leave/Laid Off under Dues Category

Keep member Status Active

Save the record

If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions, please contact the SASDesk
at 800/238-1133, ext. 4504 or sasdesk@aft.org.

Tracking Retirees: PLEASE READ

Since 1990, the AFT constitution has granted lifetime membership in the
national union to working members when they retire. This allows them to
participate in AFT PLUS benefit programs and to continue to receive AFT
national publications. It also enables the national union to send
retirees vital information about elections and legislation.

For this reason, we would like to remind Membership Suite users on how to
track retired members.

ALL retired members remain their Active member status.

Change retired members’ dues category to “Retired”. This will eliminate
any per capita payments. They will still appear on your Per Capita report,
however, there will not be any amount associated with them.

If an Active retiree desires to no longer receive publications from AFT,
use the “Do Not Mail Publication” feature in the Membership system.

It is important that you review your Inactive Membership data and update any
Retirees with the above mentioned steps. For Membership Suite users, if
you do not know the date they retired, please indicate a date from the previous
year. For example, if it was today, March 19, 2008, I would say they
retired December 31, 2007.

If you need additional help, please contact the SAS Desk at 1-800-238-1133
ext. 4504 or e-mail sasdesk@aft.org.
You may also review the attached documentation for step-by-step instructions.

Greetings:

Have you updated your records
lately? Is your officer and executive board member information current
and accurate? Along with Membership Suite, the Information Technology
Department offers the easy-to-use Affiliate Maintenance System (AMS)
tool to your update officer and/or executive board member information.

The
AFT mandates that affiliates stay in good standing with AFT. According
to language approved in the 2004 AFT Bylaws, Article X, titled, "Good
Standing," for an affiliate to be in good standing, it must meet all of
the following requirements:
More...

Convention Delegates Approve Per Capita Increase

AFT convention delegates on July 12 approved a series of constitutional
amendments and bylaws, including a per capita increase in each of the
next two years. The increase of 65 cents per member per month, effective
this September and again in September 2009, will go toward three
different funds: 40 cents will go to the AFT general fund, 15 cents to
the national Solidarity Fund and 10 cents to state affiliate Solidarity
Funds.

"We are cognizant of the fact that these are tough times, but this is what
has to be done to build a stronger AFT," said James Dougherty, an AFT vice
president and member of the constitutional amendments committee. The 40 cents
for the general fund "is absolutely necessary if we're going to continue doing
things we've been doing and face the challenges in coming years."

With the increase, the amount going to the national Solidarity Fund will
total $1.50 per member per month. Since 2003, more than $9 million has been
disbursed from the fund to states to help defeat efforts such as tax limitations
and anti-union initiatives as well as helping pass proposals such as a minimum
wage increase in Ohio.
Marty Hittelman of the California Federation of Teachers said the Solidarity
Fund has been a tremendous help to his union, which has faced a constant barrage
of bad ballot initiatives. "We really need to stop the bad ideas in California
so they don't spread," he said, noting that 11 initiatives--many of them opposed
by his union--will be on the ballot in California this November.

The remaining amendment and bylaw changes dealt primarily with procedural
changes relating to nominations, deadlines and committees. One amendment
reflected today's changing technology by replacing the requirement that
convention resolutions be submitted "in typewritten form, in quadruplicate" with
an amendment allowing resolutions to be "mailed, e-mailed in PDF format or faxed
to the president." [Dan Gursky]